ion. It is difficult to decide which is the more
astonishing, the perfect folly or the perfect iniquity of the
Code: it is easier to understand how so many thousands of victims
were helplessly sacrificed. The arrest might take place on the
simple rumour of a witch being found somewhere, without any
previous denunciation. The most abandoned and the most infamous
persons may be witnesses: no criminal is too bad. Even a witch or
heretic (the _worst_ criminal in the eye of ecclesiastical law)
is capable of giving evidence. Husbands and wives may witness one
against the other; and the testimony of children was received as
good evidence.

The ninth and tenth chapters consider the question 'whether a
defence was to be allowed; if an advocate defended his client
beyond what was requisite, whether it was not reasonable that he
too should be considered guilty; for he is a patron of witches
and heretics.... Thirteenth chapter: What the judge has to notice
in the torture-chamber. Witches who have given themselves up for
years, body and soul, to the devil, are made by him so insensible
to pain on the rack, that they rather allow themselves to be torn
to pieces than confess. Fourteenth chapter: Upon torture and the
mode of racking. In order to bring the accused to voluntary
confession, you may promise her her life; which promise, however,
may afterwards be withdrawn. If the witch does not confess the
first day, the torture to be continued the second and third days.
But here the difference between continuing and repeating is
important. The torture may not be _continued_ without fresh
evidence, but it may be _repeated_ according to judgment.
Fifteenth chapter: Continuance of the discovery of a witch by her
marks. Amongst other signs, weeping is one. It is a damning thing
if the accused, on being brought up, cannot shed tears. The
clergy and judges lay their hands on the head of the accused, and
adjure her by the hot tears of the Most Glorified Virgin that in
case of her innocence, she shed abundant tears in the name of God
the Father.'[75]

[75] Ennemoser's _History of Magic_. Translated by W.
Howitt. There are three kinds of men whom witchcraft cannot
touch--magistrates; clergymen exercising the pious rites of
the Church; and saints, who are under the immediate
protection of the angels.

The 'Bull' and 'Malleus' were the code and textbook of Witchcraft
amongst the Catholics, as the Act and 'Demonologie' of James VI.
w